The New Rules of Starting, Building and Maintaining Your Brand

Any smart marketer or branding consultant will tell you – branding has changed. It’s no longer just about clever creative and timely ad placements.

So how does a company go about turning its product, its service, or even itself into a brand?

Advertising agencies would have their clients believe that any winning brand rests on a foundation of clever slogans, memorable logos, and maybe some well-placed media buys. Granted, these marketing tools play a role in reinforcing brand identity, but they can’t be expected to shoulder the entire load of becoming knowable, likable and trustable.

The New Rules of Branding

No matter the size of your business, the new rules of branding demands you communicate the points of difference of your brand through all company touchpoints and customer engagement efforts. It’s all about becoming knowable, likeable and trustable.

The consistency in how you engage and are remembered, will then build brand identity, brand equity and emotional connections with your customers.

Think through all the ways customers and prospects can come into contact with and experience your organization. A great place to start is to identify these three core areas: marketing touchpoints, sales touchpoints and service touchpoints.

Marketing Touchpoints

Advertising, Public Relations,

Networking, Referrals

Content, Social media

Website or physical location

Employees

Community involvement

Sales Touchpoints

Sales materials

Phone calls

One-on-one meetings

Discovery

Presentation

Closing

Service Touchpoints

Customer service content

Billing

Transactional emails

Service or support team

Online help center

Follow ups

Building a strong brand is only possible one way: having the most positive experience. Whether you’re starting a brand, building a brand, or maintaining a brand your experience must be positive.

In today’s world price, quality, and service are no longer prime differentiating features. These are all expectations. The difference needs to be in the way you do business, how you package your product, the way you sell your service, the way you answer the phone, your appearance on a sales call, your signage, marketing kit, etc. – it’s all in the experience you provide.